Rock and B-Rolls

Kamikazee: Huling Sayaw

Kamikazee didn’t believe they had it in them to fill Araneta Coliseum with 15,000 people from all over the country singing along to their songs.

The show which was organized in just 2 months, was sold out. The band performed 20 songs in an almost 3 hour set which proved their effect is far greater than what they believed their worth is in the last 15 years of their career.

This is what happens when a bunch of really humble guys start a band with the goal of just being able to perform and make music.

Watching and listening to Kamikazee is like a skit that plays out the typical Pinoy life – parating walang pera, heartbroken, reklamador, malandi, adik (by that I mean “insanely passionate” like how you say “Adik Sayooo” in Rivermaya’s ‘Hinahanap Hanap Kita‘ hahaha) — and as Pinoys we all go through life smiling.

Every album they hatched seems like a ‘Life for Dummies’ book with hit songs every edition. It was as if they went through extremely senseless or extremely heartbreaking experiences just to tell us that we’ll all turn out completely fine — just laugh it off (or vomit expletives as an option).

They say that funny ones are the most emotional. Comedians excel in drama mainly because they feel so much. It’s much easier to make someone cry than to make someone laugh. Funny people are sometimes unaware they have instincts for this. Kamikazee has mastered this which is why it isn’t at all surprising that they’re very close friends with Parokya Ni Edgar who share their kind of humor (PNE Drummer Dindin Moreno was seen seated at the upper box level and was said to have seen giving the band a constant ‘Fuck You’ sign from where he was).

To be able to affect someone with your music means you have to feel just as much. Their final gig in Araneta was proof of this: They made the venue feel like something most big performers in the venue could rarely give — the ability to make every one feel like how they feel when you see them in a small bars such as 70s Bistro or 19East — intimate yet grand.

A Kamikazee show wouldn’t be complete without the lengthy banters in between songs, with Jay making fun of fans, his bandmates or other bands. The only ones known to pull this off without getting in trouble.

Last night was slightly different – Jay showed his meek side, slightly apologetic – would tell everyone again and again how grateful the band is for everyone’s presence – as if a director deliberately delays making the scene because it was almost the final cut. Jay walked back and forth the ramp that spanned the whole length of Araneta Coliseum as if to savor his last moments on stage.

As much as I wanted to hear the next song, I also didn’t want to let them move on just yet. It is baffling how a band at their peak, suddenly decide to take a break. Kamikazee is a rare breed – a 15 year old band just as big, if not bigger than their older counterparts. They became the heroes they admired and have made their own path. Now all of them are happily settled with their families, they’ve decided to try and see what life would be like outside of the band.

After all these years you’d think that Kamikazee shouldn’t be taken seriously. After all, a song about finding your “Tsinelas” wouldn’t have a lasting impact in society — quite the contrary, it says a lot about it. That single piece of composition has jumpstarted something so grand, it’s hard to believe that fifteen years later this would be the effect. If I was to connect everything from beginning to end I’d say na “Kinailangan talaga ni Jay hanapin yung tsinelas nya kasi kailangan nya magawa yung huling sayaw.”

After the last song, the band hugged each other on stage and took a final bow. As they left there was a collective silence from the crowd. For a moment everyone did not know whether they were going to leave or to stay. Has it ended? Is it done? Was that it? Are you sure?

It has ended, it is done, that is that and by now we’re all so sure of it. It was a difficult goodbye because it’s temporary. You couldn’t really get super sad, but you can’t be happy about it either. They said they’ll be back, it’s just that they don’t know when.

I guess we all just have to live in a world with one less band to make us smile.